could have no reasonable security against the influence of a similar panic in his Army, should another Goliath arise.

"And when his Servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the King's Son in Law: and the days were not expired: wherefore David arose and went, he and his Men, and slew of the Philistines two hundred Men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full tale to the King, that he might be the King's Son in Law. And Saul gave him Michal, his Daughter, to Wife." 1 Sam. xviii, 26, 27.

By how much the Soul of David was elated with joy at the prospect of this promised connection, by so much in proportion must sorrow have preyed upon his heart at the disappointment, to which he so undeservedly on his own part, and so dishonourably on that of the King, had been previously exposed. But insurmountable as Saul conceived to be the obstacle placed by him in the way of David's happiness, David even doubled in performance the task allotted to him. The service of his Master and the cause of his Country had the influence of love to back them, and were irresistible. In that day the meek and unoffending and unresisting Spirit of Christianity did not prevail. Self-defence is not inconsistent with Gospel Tenets; but It Restrains unnecessary warfare and acts of aggression; though the fault of these is rather with the Governors than the Governed; and to a fearful responsibility in the Latter does the influence of ambition give rise. CHRIST Gave us a New Commandment, that we love One Another,"-that we love not only our Neighbours but our Enemies; and that rather than do evil, we should cut off the hand or pluck out the eye to disable us from executing an evil purpose. The Christian Soldier, therefore, would have pleasure, not in being commissioned to cut off the fleshy foreskins of his barbarous Neighbours, but to cut off the foreskins of sensuality and lust, and to allay the propensities for cruelty and turbulence, or restless ambition in their hearts; that so far from destroying their bodies, he might save even their Souls alive.

Fomer

"And Saul saw and knew that The LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul's Daughter, loved him: and Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David's Enemy continually. Then the Princes of the Philistines went forth; and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the Servants of Saul, so that his name was much set by."-1 Sam. xviii, 28. 30.

With everything, that should disarm suspicion, and which should gratify the feelings both of a Father and a King, in the conduct and character of David, as evidencing a faithful and exemplary discharge of all his relative duties, yet was the Soul of Saul more restless and perturbed in proportion as the various merits of his Son in Law unfolded themselves; and though the Child of his own loins confirmed by her conduct, since her union with David, the empire he had previously acquired over her heart, proclaiming thereby, in language the most intelligible, that her peace depended on his preservation, yet did this unnatural Father contemplate the sacrifice of Both. Even the advance of his most formidable Enemies could not alter his purpose, terrified as he had been before by them, so as to offer the most honourable station that a Subject could hold, that of an alliance with the Royal House, to the Conqueror of their Hero; and though David was the only Man, of all his dominions, who dared even to hazard himself, and that, not from personal, but patriotic and religious motives; yet did envy, at his superior merit, and the testimony naturally borne to it by Others, rankle in Saul's bosom and light up a fire of desolation in his breast, that consumed even the temple, which Reason and Experience had built there as an asylum of Selfpreservation. But The LORD was with David; and vain as is the help of Man, still vainer is his hate, when opposed to the Power and the Merciful Designs of his MAKER. Without even the apprehension of danger from such a quarter,

where indeed there was the least justifiable ground for suspecting it; but where there was the most power to minister destruction, David, in the unsuspectingness of his heart, was left without other defence than his general trust in The LORD; and to him, as among the Generations of old, the observations of the wise Son of Sirach may, in a pre-eminent degree, be applied, "Did ever Any trust in The LORD, and was confounded? or did any abide in His fear, and was Forsaken ?" And Saul spake to Jonathan, his Son, and to all his Servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's Son, delighted much in David; and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul, my Father, seeketh to kill thee! Now, therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself! and I will go out and stand beside my Father in the field, where thou art, and I will commune with my Father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.'”-1 Sam. xix, 1. 3.

66

Saul could not have been ignorant of the nobleness of Jonathan's heart, and he had personally witnessed the distinguished respect paid by Jonathan to David; but so wildly was Saul's Soul infuriated against the inoffensive David, that he strives to render such a Son the Murderer of such a Friend and Brother. Great, however, as was the reverence paid to Saul by Jonathan, both as a Son and a Subject, yet was he not to be led to do so great an evil and sin against HEAVEN :-Still he did not inconsiderately spurn the command, or expostulate with his Father on the enormity and injustice of the act he contemplated, but availing himself of the full knowledge he had of the violent and ungovernable passion of his Father, at the time when it was thus raging, he, in the spirit of the most zealous friendship, sought first an opportunity of preparing David against the danger that so imminently threatened him, and then, in the prudence of friendly counsel, suggested expedients the most likely to rescue David from the perils that surrounded him. So is it that they, who grow in Favour with GOD, grow also in favour with All, that are estimable among Men.

"And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul, his Father, and said unto him, 'Let not the King sin against his Servant, against David, because he hath not sinned against thee; and because his works have been to thee-ward very good: for he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine; and The LORD Wrought a Great Salvation for all Israel! Thou sawest it and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?' And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan, and Saul sware, As The LORD Liveth, he shall not be slain.""-1 Sam. xix, 4 to 6.

Having used the precaution he deemed necessary to prevent the effects of the immediate impulse of his Father's malice, and having allowed time to elapse for its violence to abate, Jonathan, in the spirit of brotherly love towards David, approaches Saul, and in all the wisdom and earnestness of a Spiritual Counsellor and dutiful Son, reasons with his Kingly Father against the atrocious act he had meditated. Knowing the goodness of David's heart, and the excellence of his conduct, Jonathan sets these before the King as arguments against his destruction of such a Subject: with all the eloquence and skill of the profoundest Advocate, he urges the claim of David to the gratitude and confidence of his King, as well as Country, and boldly tells his Father he will be guilty, in that he will have shed innocent blood, if he recall not his fell and murderous purpose. In pressing his merit as having risked his life in the combat with Goliath, Jonathan, in the piety of a true Israelite, acknowledges that David was the Chosen Instrument in the Hand of GOD for effecting their Nation's Deliverance; and he pushes home this argument with the fullest force, by challenging his Father to admit that he, himself, was an Eye-Witness of it; thereby resorting, with great ingenuity, to an expedient, which was the most likely to awaken in Saul a consciousness of A DIVINE PROVIDENCE, and a sense of the resistless Influence of His Power,

and of the folly of acting in defiance of the Ordinance of His Will. He then admonishes him of the joy, which he experienced at the effect of David's valour, thereby leading the King's mind to consider that, if David were thus cut off, and another such occasion for Saul's fears should arise, he might, through his own most miserable and self-destructive policy, find himself without another Saviour in Israel; and then concludes in all the impressiveness of interrogation: "wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood to slay David without a cause?" So good was the seed thus sown by Jonathan in his Father's heart, that it suddenly sprung up, and seemed to promise a fruitful harvest; for Saul not only professedly relinquished his diabolical purpose, but ratified the avowal by the most solemn of oaths, saying, "As The LORD Liveth, David shall not be slain!” That The LORD did Live Saul could not but be conscious of; for that The LORD was with David was the cause of Saul's fear of him. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose, that such was the real intent of Saul's heart at the moment, when worked upon by the affectionate zeal and unanswerable reasoning of Jonathan. But Saul had rejected the Grace of GOD, and he sought not in humility, and prayer, and penitence for Its Restitution: and his heart, as is that of every Son of Adam when left, through sensuality and pride, to its own guidance and governance, was too much overrun with the thorns of jealousy to suffer the seed, however good, and however at first joyfully received, to grow up to maturity.

"And Jonathan called David; and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul; and he was in his presence, as in times past.”1 Sam. xix, 7.

cause.

Thus we see the force and effect of friendship, when exercised in a righteous To all Human appearance its triumph was complete: the reconciliation, so devoutly and laudably wished by Jonathan, seemed to have been effected; and thus Jonathan succeeded in the first object of his heart, that of averting from the Royal Mind the foul design of David's murder; and secondly, in replacing his favourite David within the sphere of Royal patronage and protection. But unstable as the wind are the purposes of Self-depending Man!

"And there was war again; and David went out and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter: and they fled from him. And the evil Spirit from The LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand and David played with his hand. And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall: and David fled, and escaped that night. Saul also sent Messengers unto David's house to watch him, and to slay him in the morning: and Michal, David's Wife, told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to-night, to-morrow thou shalt be slain! So Michal let David down through a window: and he went and fled and escaped. And Michal took an image and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth: and when Saul sent Messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.' And Saul sent the Messengers again to see David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him! And when the Messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed with a pillow of goat's hair for his bolster. And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine Enemy, that he is escaped?" And Michal answered Saul,-He said unto me, Let me go! why should I kill thee.'"-1 Sam. xix, 8. 17.

A second deliverance, wrought by the same Instrument, from the grasp of the same fierce and exasperated Enemy, scems to have revived the spirit of jealousy in the bosom of Saul, which for a season only he had endeavoured to suppress, but without resorting to such means as humiliation, and fasting, and

prayer, by which the spirit of evil may be entirely rooted out from the Human heart; and that heart, instead of being a heart of stone, be made a heart of flesh, tender and harmless as a new-born Babe's. Had David withdrawn from the battle, the crown, the Kingdom, the very life of Saul, might have fallen before the valour of the Philistines. In the attempt to save these, the life of David, rendered doubly dear to him by his conjugal connection, was again put to the hazard. And is it in Man, when bereaved of the Grace of GOD, to be not only blind to such favours conferred, but to make them the cause of inward uneasiness and outward violence; of conduct alike outraging the laws of justice and gratitude! but so History declares in all ages, and our own hearts, when yielded up to the base passions of our Nature, emanating, as they do, from the Spirit of evil, confirm the awful truth. How obviously, therefore, does it become our interest, as well as duty, to guard our hearts against the evil passions that assault and hurt the Soul, lest in the hour of temptation we fall away, like Saul, from our former righteous purposes, having discarded That Spiritual Help, Which, through CHRIST, can alone Deliver us from evil. David having fought the battles of Saul against his temporal Foes, in all the tender attention of a Son, in all the loyalty of a Subject, in all the dutifulness of a Servant, strove to vanquish also his spiritual Enemies; but the evil Spirit had been suffered to take too fast a hold of Saul's mind to be shaken from its possession, even by the Inspired touch of the harp of the Son of Jesse. How dreadful is this degeneracy, which shuts our ear to the tones of even Heavenly music!

Mighty as is the Spirit of evil in the destruction of the Human Soul, yet is The SPIRIT of The LORD Mightier in the Salvation of Them, that freely and gratefully use Its Grace. Against the fury of Saul's envy and the force of his weapon was David Preserved by The Watchful GUARDIAN of his Life, Who never Slumbereth nor Sleepeth.

Disappointed of his aim in the sudden destruction of a Fellow-Creature, useful and faithful as had been his services, Saul meditates further on his hellish purposes, and deliberately plans the sacrifice of the Object of his hate. Having failed in his intention of being himself the Executioner, he enlists the miserable and blind Victims of his will to perpetrate the horrid crime, alike regardless of the Laws of GOD and Man. But again did The SPRIT of The LORD, Which Knoweth what is in Man, Defeat his intent, and by the Dictates of prudential policy to Michal, the Consort of David, Save that Life, which was to bring Blessings in its SEED to all Ages of the World.

"So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth." -1 Sam xix, 18. The piety of David's mind led him to the Prophet of The LORD; of That LORD, to Whom he ascribed his Salvation; and with that Prophet he took sweet counsel, and from him perhaps inhaled that spiritual instruction, which, under the Guidance of The HOLY SPIRIT, shone forth with such distinguished lustre in his literary productions, to the delight and improvement of all succeeding times. Perhaps in all the period of David's eventful and interesting Life, no portion of it was so delightful to himself as this season of his social intercourse with the holy Prophet. Of that Communion, which awaits the Saints in the Life to Come, where both Samuel and David, in an infinitely more Sanctified and Glorified State, will be found, was this holy union emblematical.

"And it was told Saul, saying, 'Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.' And Saul sent Messengers to take David."-1 Sam. xix, 19, first part of 20. But the impiety of Saul led him to break in upon so sacred an asylum, and, notwithstanding he himself had received his Kingdom from the hand of Samuel, and had besought Samuel to turn with him to The LORD, that The LORD'S Anger might be

Turned away from him, yet did he madly dare the imprecations of that same Prophet for the Infliction of DIVINE Chastisement upon his head, choosing rather to risk the immediate Sentence of his Soul to everlasting Punishment, than avoid gratifying his malicious hatred by visiting a temporal death on its Object. But how vain is the help, or the aim, or the device of Man, in a war against the Will of GOD.

6

"And when they (the Messengers) saw the Company of the Prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, The SPIRIT of GOD was upon the Messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied: and when it was told Saul, he sent other Messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent Messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also. Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well, that is in Sechu; and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And One said, 'Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah !' And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah; and The SPIRIT of GOD was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner; and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, 'Is Saul also among the Prophets?"-1 Sam. xix, 20, last part of 24.

It is charity only that never faileth, but prophecies cease, and in their exercise are profitless to their Utterers, if the hearts of those, by whom they are delivered, are not right with The LORD. Balaam took up his parable, and said, "May I die the death of the Righteous, and may my latter end be like his !" but he lived not afterwards the life of righteousness, and therefore he could not be expected to repose on the pillow of Spiritual Consolation in the hour of death. "Prophesying serveth not for them, that believe not," as saith St. Paul to the Corinthians, and this whether Hearers or Deliverers of Prophecy; for prophesying, to be available as a demonstration of the inward Working of Grace over the Soul, should be, as prayer, with the Spirit and with the understanding; and thus only is it that "if we all prophesy One by One (as contemplated by Saint Paul), we may all learn, and may all be comforted."-1 Cor. xiv, 31.

"And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy Father, that he seeketh my life?"-1 Sam. xx, 1.

In the inscrutable Counsels of The MOST HIGH, doubtless, was it that David left the seemingly unassailable asylum afforded him by the presence of the Prophet, and seized the moment of the King's absence from his Court, to interest his Princely Friend, on his behalf, to renew his efforts at changing in Saul the unhallowed purpose of destruction. It is thus that secondary causes may, with propriety, be resorted to, and it would be even presumptuous not to avail ourselves of them, since it is too much to expect that PROVIDENCE should unnecessarily Interpose by Miracle for our temporal salvation. The consciousness of innocence prompts David to stake his life upon the proof of it. And yet conceiving that Saul could not be actuated to such unremitting and merciless persecution of him without some imaginary cause, David modestly asks, what is the guilt with which the King charges me, and which he deems worthy even of death? "And he (Jonathan) said unto him, GOD Forbid! thou shalt not die behold, my Father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my Father hide this thing from me? it is not so.' And David sware moreover, and said, Thy Father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes: and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this! lest he be grieved. But truly as The LORD Liveth, and as thy Soul liveth, there is but a step between me and death.""-1 Sam. xx, 2. 3. Possessed, as he conceived himself to be, of the entire confidence of his Father, Jonathan unhesitatingly